The melodic noise collective known as A Troop of Echoes will unveil their full-length debut Days In Automation next weekend at AS220, hosting their album release party alongside an impressive gathering of local support (including Mahi Mahi). And the South County-based quartet is already signed on for an afternoon set at this year’s Foo Fest, set to invade Empire Street in mid-August. A Troop of Echoes are indeed a product of their environment, what they refer to as “the bizarre art school-meets-filthy warehouse stew of Providence, RI.” That sentiment is echoed within the array of live acts A Troop of Echoes have teamed with, from Roz Raskin and Stalemate to hardcore face-shredders YavinFive.

The unique ingredient in ToE’s instrumental romps, as opposed to like-minded experts like California Smile, Bellows, and Nature/Nurture, is the saxophone (alto and soprano), courtesy of band founder Peter Gilli. Five years ago he approached friends with the novel idea of a saxophone-fronted rock band, and both Gilli and drummer Dan Moriarty are quick to salute Sonic Youth, as well as Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, as vital influences. Their entertaining, horn-tooting bio dubs their approach “the frantic noise of Sonic Youth’s most avant-garde wet dreams” giving way to “high-energy, song-based, instrumental dance rock,” along with this smug yet enticing reference:“Stan Getz watches impartially from a distance as Lightning Bolt crashes the party. Then Philip Glass replaces the windows.”

A Troop of Echoes (the band moniker inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”) mixed and tracked Days at Machines with Magnets over a week-long stretch. “They were long, long days,” Troop drummer Dan Moriarty conceded, who was living in Baltimore at the time and is relocating back to Providence next weekend.

“The most challenging song for me was the first song we recorded, ‘Hollywood Red,’ ” Moriarty recalled. “I arrived at the studio straight off of a sleepless red-eye train from Baltimore, and this was really our first professional recording experience, so nerves were running pretty high.

“Initially, we didn’t realize how much the recording process amplified even the tiniest mistake, and the engineers were very vocal when something was a little off. We were pretty disheartened after the first day of recording, and I remember laying in bed that night dreading having to go back to the studio the next day.”

“But, after a good night’s sleep, this album turned out to be one of the most enjoyable experiences we’ve had as a band.”

Those challenges paid dividends; “Hollywood Red” opens the album and stands out as a major highlight, along with “Golden Gears” and “Providence Public Defender.” Bassist Harrison Hartley plays a vital role throughout, particularly his nimble lines locking on with Moriarty, accompanying Gilli’s funky, swirling sax groove on “Little Bird.” Nick Cooper plays the role of Moore/Renaldo with the Marshall-humping, jagged guitar squalls on “Analog Astronaut,” and the monster meltdown that closes out the eight-plus minute “New Breath.”

Moriarty summed up the band’s sonic blueprint via email:

“When you grow up across town from bands like Lightning Bolt, you’re going to appreciate a good dose of noise and feedback in your music. We’re fascinated by the idea of composed melodies fighting their way through swirling chaos.

“Noise and feedback can be playful, lush, and fuzzy or annoying, aggressive, and post-apocalyptic. We enjoy all of these aspects.”

Days In Automation will be available at the CD release party, and at iTunes and all CD outlets on June 1.

Ghost stories For all of the excitement that surrounded Wilco on the Maine State Pier or Sufjan Stevens at Port City Music Hall or the various sold-out Ray LaMontagne shows of the past year, there is no question that last Sunday's Phish show at the Cumberland County Civic Center was the biggest thing to hit our fair city in a very long time.

Winged migration Since their start in the middle of the decade, Brown Bird have been one of the region's go-to chamber-folk outfits, with a couple of dark and stormy albums earning them a following in various nooks of New England. The release of their latest album, The Devil Dancing , feels like both an ending and a new beginning.

Injustice for all Scott Sturgeon loses his train of thought a couple of times during this interview. He's loopy from jet lag — which is unavoidable after a 20-hour flight from New Zealand (halfway around the planet from his non-residency at a squatted apartment building in New York City), where he's just finished a tour with his claim-to-fame band, Leftover Crack.

Wanting more After its triumphant traversal of the complete Béla Bartók string quartets at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Borromeo Quartet was back for a free 20th- and 21st-century program at Jordan Hall, leading off with an accomplished recent piece by the 24-year-old Egyptian composer Mohammed Fairuz, Lamentation and Satire.

Group hug Things aren’t always what they’re called — we know that flying fish don’t fly and starfish aren’t even fish.

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Local flavor Local journalist and acclaimed hip-hop scribe Andrew Martin has corralled a flavorful roster of Rhody-based rap talent on the Ocean State Sampler , 10 exclusive tracks available for free download.

Beyond Dilla and Dipset With a semi-sober face I'll claim that hip-hop in 2010 might deliver more than just posthumous Dilla discs, Dipset mixtapes, and a new ignoramus coke rapper whom critics pretend rhymes in triple-entendres.

John Harbison plus 10 Classical music in Boston is so rich, having to pick 10 special events for this winter preview is more like one-tenth of the performances I'm actually looking forward to.

Shout it out! Sharks Come Cruisin' founder Mark Lambert is a Warwick native with a penchant for reworking and penning sea shanties from centuries past, often revised with rollicking punk flare — all thanks to the golden pipes of Quint, the shark-obsessed skipper in Jaws .